This invention relates to track switching devices provided for two-rail type tracks adapted to support and guide magnetic floating type rolling stock employed in ultra-high speed railway transportation.
In an ordinary railway, rolling stock is supported, guided, and driven by the combination of wheels and rails. However, in an ultra-high speed railway, the function of supporting and guiding the rolling stock and the function of driving the same are provided separately from each other.
A magnetic floating system of magnetically floating rolling stock in which a magnetic force is employed to support and guide the rolling stock in a non-contact manner is known in the art. More specifically, in this magnetic floating system, the rolling stock is are supported and guided in a non-contact manner by a magnetic attractive force or magnetic repulsive force applied to two parallel rails.
The magnetic floating type rolling stock which is allowed to run by being supported and guided by a two-rail track having two parallel rails is provided with a magnetic attractive or repulsive device protruding between the rails from the bottom thereof. Therefore, in the case of a track switching device for the above-described two-rail track, unlike in the case of a conventional track, it is not permitted to provide rails crossing the tracks because of the above-described protruding device.
Therefore, a conventional track switching device for two-rail tracks for the magnetic floating type rolling stock is so designed as illustrated in FIGS. 1(a) and 1(b), or 2(a) and 2(b).
In the prior art shown in FIG. 1, a movable member 12 is provided at the joint of a track 10 and a branch track 11 in such a manner that it can be moved perpendicularly to the direction of the track 10. More specifically, the movable member 12 is provided with a first track 12a which aligns with the track 10, and a second track 12b which aligns with the track 11. The track switching operation is achieved by moving the movable track 12 as shown in FIGS. 1(a) and 1(b).
However, this conventional track switching device is disadvantageous in the following point. In general, the length of a track switching part in the ultra-high speed railway is five to eight times as long as that in the ordinary railway. Therefore, if such a lengthy track switching part is made into a movable track switching device, it will become a large-scale device. In this case, the driving device for moving the track switching device will require a large drive capacity.
Shown in FIG. 2 is also a conventional method which is an improvement of the prior art illustrated in FIG. 1. In this method, the movable member shown in FIGS. 1(a) and 1(b) is divided into several movable member 12a, 12b, 12c - - - arranged along the track, whereby, the power of a device for driving a movable member is reduced.
However, this conventional method is also disadvantageous in that a mechanism for driving a number of movable members is necessarily intricate, and that since the moving distances of the several movable members are different from one another in switching the tracks, the control device thereof becomes undoubtedly intricate also.